Joy Ogden

Joy has been a nurse for 47 years, with 41 of those years working in Emergency Departments. She started her career as a CNA on a medical-surgical unit, working summers while in nursing school. Upon graduation, she worked on a medical-surgical unit as both a staff nurse and then a charge nurse. Following that she went on to work in the ICU and then became her hospital’s first float nurse, working all units except surgery and Labor and Delivery. When she floated to the ER, she fell in love with it and remained there until leaving to pursue a career in academia. While in the ER, she worked as a staff nurse, charge nurse, and then as the department’s educator. She helped bring her hospital from a community hospital to a Level 1 trauma center. She is now the Level 2 coordinator in the ABSN track and greatly enjoys working with her students. She says: “They bring a fresh outlook to everything!”

Joy graduated from Northern Illinois University with a BSN. She worked as a nurse while raising her sons and returned to school later to pursue her master’s degree. She graduated from Olivet with a master’s in nursing degree. She is also a TNS (Trauma Nurse Specialist) licensed in Illinois and a CEN (Certified Emergency Nurse). Teaching has become her passion these days and she enjoys sharing both her knowledge and her love of God with her students.

” I enjoy working at Olivet because of the opportunities to share my knowledge as well as my faith with my students.”

She resides in northeastern Illinois with her husband and 2 crazy dogs. She enjoys hiking, gardening, and quilting.